EL SEGUNDO – With 15 games left in the regular season, this is winning time for the Kings.

After missing the playoffs a season ago, the Kings held the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference by a point ahead of Friday’s slate of games. They were one point out of third place in the Pacific Division; a team is guaranteed a playoff spot with a divisional finish of third or higher.

The Kings (37-25-5, 79 points) are loving it.

“You work all year for these games to matter and you want that pressure and you want the exciting games and it’s an exciting time to get the team game going and continue it going into the playoffs, and that’s our goal,” said defenseman Jake Muzzin, whose team next hosts St. Louis (35-27-5, 75 points) on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Staples Center.

“We have experience in this room and we’ve played a lot of big games and we have young guys learning to do that, so it’s an exciting time and I’m excited about this group.”

Fellow defenseman Derek Forbort loves this kind of stress.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s a lot of fun playing these games,” he said. “It’s the kind of pressure you want. It kind of makes you play better, kind of makes you focus more, so I like it.”

Forward Nate Thompson was acquired via trade from the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 13, and has played in 11 games with the Kings. Although he came from a team not contending for a playoff berth, he has played a combined 58 playoff games for Tampa Bay and Anaheim.

He embraces the scenario.

“I mean, I don’t even think it’s pressure,” Thompson said. “I think you look at it as an opportunity and a challenge and it’s exciting. This is an exciting time of year and we’re in a good spot … to control our fate and make the playoffs and I think at this time of year, that’s where you want to be.”

It’s a lot better than this same time in 2017, when the Kings were almost out of playoff contention, even though they weren’t officially eliminated until April 2 in the fifth-to-last game of the season; they missed the playoffs by eight points.

This is especially true for someone like Muzzin, who enjoyed the best of times when he played 26 playoff games for the Kings in their 2014 Stanley Cup title run.

“Yeah, that’s a feeling that (big sigh) you remember and you learn from it,” Muzzin said of missing the post-season in 2017. “I mean, it’s a feeling you don’t want to happen again. Making the playoffs is tough. It’s a lot of games, it’s a lot of good teams and I think it comes down to wanting it more and the emotion and just out-competing the other team in one-on-one battles and stuff like that.

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“We’ve done a good job this year at that and these next 15 games, we’re going to need all of that.”

Forbort, in his third season, has not tasted championship success. That doesn’t mean missing the playoffs this past season didn’t bug the heck out of him.

“It was a very terrible feeling,” he said.

Unlike what he’s experiencing now.

“It’s fun,” he said.

Ice chips
After Saturday, the Kings host Vancouver on Monday night at 7:30. They then venture to Arizona for a game Tuesday against the Coyotes before coming back home for games Thursday against Detroit and March 17 against New Jersey. … Of their 15 remaining games, the Kings will play nine at home.